Fire rages through farm region

Vince Chadwick

WHOLE hills are charcoal black while others nearby are untouched, such was the ferocity and randomness of the grass fire that tore through farming communities 30 kilometres west of Ballarat on Tuesday night.

Nine properties between Carngham and Chepstowe were lost and two people were taken to hospital as 360 firefighters fought to control the blaze, which started by accident in a paddock at 3.20pm due to sparks given off by a vehicle.

Police are not treating the fire as suspicious and Country Fire Authority operations officer Brett Boatman said the utility owner had all the adequate fire fighting equipment with him but was powerless to stop the fire from spreading to neighbouring properties.

''The key to this fire was the speed,'' Mr Boatman said, beneath eucalyptus trees still green on top but blackened underneath.

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Travelling at 8km/h, the fire burnt 1319 hectares, aided by a strong south-westerly wind, before being contained about 8pm.

However, embers continued to threaten homes at nearby Snake Valley throughout the night, with one woman still extinguishing fires on her property at 3am on Wednesday.

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Kim Nunn was not so lucky. He and his son were attempting to put out fires on their Carngham farm when they returned to find their house alight. Mr Nunn, who has lived in the area for more than 30 years, said he had nothing but the clothes he was wearing.

''Everything's gone,'' he said as friends gathered to help him deal with hundreds of livestock that perished in the blaze.

At a community meeting on Wednesday morning some residents complained that parts of the CFA website had crashed as they sought information about the fire's movements.

Acting Premier Peter Ryan said concerns about the website would be looked at immediately but that ''the system at large worked very well''.

■A grass fire that tore through land near Wallan on Wednesday afternoon was probably deliberately lit, the Country Fire Authority says.

The five-hectare blaze broke out at Taylors Lane at Wallan, about 60 kilometres north of Melbourne, and took firefighters 2½ hours to control.

CFA operations officer David Harris said it was believed the fire was suspicious.

''It was probably deliberately lit and police are investigating that,'' he said.

Nearby, there were two other small grass fires at High Camp and Glenaroua, about 40 kilometres north of Wallan.

Karen Buckley, who works at Wallan's Hogans Hotel, said people had gathered there to wait. ''I can see the smoke from the window here,'' she said. ''We have a couple of local residents actually here with their little dogs, just waiting it out.''

Twenty fire trucks and two helicopters were sent to tackle the blaze, which was still burning but under control overnight.